Nuclear Power In China Patent Strategy Research

Nine nuclear power units, with the total capacity of about 7000 MWe, have been in operation in China since the end of 2006. China nuclear power industry goes into a rapid development stage with the implementation of the medium and long term programme of nuclear power industry (2005-2020). The patent strategy should be established as soon as possible. At the same time, the study of patent protection will afford a little useful information for the ongoing commercial negotiation about the importation of the Gen-III nuclear power technology. So the patent strategy study of nuclear power in China is put forward and discussed in this paper.In this study, secondary patent database of nuclear power all over the world was established. A lot of patent maps were made and the data were analyzed with statistical methodology according to the database. As a result, some practical and active proposals are brought forward for China nuclear power development.It shows that the states of nuclear power patents reflect the development road of nuclear power industry of the world actually. The developed countries, such as the United States,Japan,France and Germany are still possessing the main patents of nuclear power. Fuel fabrication, control and measurement, handling fuel and other materials are the most competitive fields. Some important technical patents had been applied for protection in China by foreign countries, but the most important of them have not been opened until now. The patents applied earlier are not a threat to China nuclear power corporations. The more attention should be paid to the patents that will be applied in the near future. In addition, some technical patents which will be used in the nuclear power plant Gen-III were applied in China by Westinghouse Electric Corporation and Framatome Corporation many years ago. So it is an important work to organize nuclear specialists to evaluate the above patents at present.It is the first time to study the nuclear power patents in the world using quantitative analysis method in China. The patent strategy of foreign competitors and the technical state of domestic enterprises are studied. It is useful for domestic enterprises to map out their patent strategy and develop such study.